


Take Me Home To My Heart

by MeredithBrody



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-22 00:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their last thoughts are always of one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me Home To My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> The first part (Jonathan's part) of this chapter was written for the drabble challenge on Facebook, the second part (Erika's part) was originally to be a companion, then it would not stop writing. 
> 
> The title of this fic comes from the song "Shattered" by Trading Yesterday.

_Once upon a time she had told him that that kiss had been a favour. The kiss that had reminded him of his feelings for her. The kiss that had reminded him that there were people he loved people who loved him back. The kiss that had all but directly led him to this point._

_He could trace everything in his life back to that kiss. Everything since he returned from the Expanse._

_That kiss was the direct reason for his promotions, for his wins, for everything he had done since that day. That kiss was the reason he had two children, five grandchildren and his first great-grandchild on the way._

_That kiss was the reason he was laid here now, with her hand wrapped in his. Listening to her tell stories about their early years together._

_That kiss was the reason he could look back over 95 years of love and not be afraid of this moment. Not be afraid that she didn't know how he felt._

_That kiss was how he knew she loved him. This last kiss would be how she knew he loved her._

**~Four Months Later~**

Some days she wasn't sure who she was any more. She hadn't planned on this, somehow she had never thought he'd be the first to go. In 95 years she'd never thought she'd be the one left without him. Even those years they weren't together, they didn't speak, she had always known she could speak to him, could call him up if she'd needed him. That wasn't there any more, she didn't have that comfort.

Instead she had sat here, all but alone in the house they'd shared since his retirement. They had lived many places over their decades together, and wherever they had been together had felt like home. She didn't feel like she had a home any longer. The only time she felt at home were when she had her visitors. Serena came every couple of days, bringing her grandchildren along with her. Her bright sparks were always telling the children stories of their great-grandfather, explaining the things he had done, he would continue to do even in his death. Jonathan Archer had been an important man in the forming of the Federation.

Henry would come on other days, and he would help her out to the Starfleet cemetery, where Jon was buried with all his honours. She had already arranged for her own plot to be beside his. They had joked once, when they had both known the end was coming, that being together in the cemetery would make things easier for the children. HC had consistently told them to stop being morbid.

No matter how long she was alone, if it was hours or minutes, she'd find herself missing him. Once upon a time, she'd think herself pathetic for missing him, even when they hadn't spoken in months. She knew now that wasn't pathetic, that was just human nature. She had loved him so much that being lonely without him wasn't her being pathetic, or needing a man in her life. It was her knowing that she loved him, and wanted to speak him.

What hurt the most was that they were so close. They had made a deal many years earlier that they see the 100th anniversary of the day they had first met. It was 5 years away. She would always remember the day, the cocky pilot with his inexpert flirting techniques, and how she had felt so stupid for being so instantly attracted to him. She wouldn't change anything about their life together, regardless of the pitfalls. The times they had almost ended it all. There had so many of them, but in the end they had always been brought back together.

"Grandma, how you doing?" A voice asked from the door. Erika looked up to see her eldest granddaughter in the doorway, all she could do was nod and smile. She didn't trust her voice in that moment, almost certain that something would break. "Missing grandpa?" Leah asked, and Erika nodded again. "I miss him too."

"I think we do." Erika muttered, her voice breaking as she had known it would. She had been thinking about Jonathan non-stop all morning. She had little else to think about right then, and it did bring her some comfort. "I wasn't ready to try to live without him." She muttered, remembering her granddaughter was a mature adult, her own first grandchild on the way. "Your grandfather and I had been together for close to a century, and never once did I think I'd be the one left behind."

"Grandpa always knew he'd go first." Leah muttered, reaching out and taking Erika's hand. "He told mom and uncle Henry to make sure you were alright."

Erika just looked at the woman in front of her for a minute, remembering that Leah had met her husband at 24, the same Erika had been when she met Jon. There was a chance she would be in this situation in the future. "I will never be alright, not now. I am too old to pretend that things will pick up for me." She took another breath, and the peace she had been searching for settled over her as she realised she had made the decision to stop trying to fight, she didn't need to anymore. "Time is just a reminder that your grandfather is no longer here. My heart is broken, but soon I will be taken home, to my heart. I will see your grandfather again, and soon." She squeezed Leah's hand and felt the tears well in her eyes. "I want you to promise me something, don't be sad for me when I go. Tell your mom and Henry that I'm free, and that Jonathan and I are together again. I want you to make sure the family know how proud I am, of all of them. How happy I am to have raised this family, how proud Jonathan and I were for our place in history."

"I will, grandma."

"I love you." She whispered, not wanting to take up any more of Leah's precious time, the time she should be spending with her own growing family. Erika signed her name to the last few papers she had sat down so many hours earlier to sign. Conferring everything she and Jonathan had gained through their lives to their children to divide equally through the family. Then the pages of the name she wanted to be buried under. 'Erika A. Archer-Hernandez'. That was the last thing she had needed to do. Her decision made, her affairs organised. All she had to do was wait for her ailing body to catch up to her shattered heart. Then she'd be home.


End file.
